Lake Norman Real Estate’s April 2016 Hot Sheet is Here!

Want the very latest insight into our Lake Norman real estate market? So do I which is why, every month, I do a snapshot analysis of the middle two weeks of the month to get a sense of where we are at this very moment…an almost live insight into the heartbeat of the Lake Norman housing market.

I always get excited to do this Hot Sheet analysis each month because it provides me with a mid-month pulse of our Lake Norman real estate market. So where are we today? The numbers below prove just how HOT our market is right now and the momentum that we saw last month is continuing after the dip in closed sales in March. Let’s take a closer look:

Lake Norman Real Estate’s April 2016 Two-Week Hot Sheet

* The above chart is a summary of today’s “Hot Sheet” from the Charlotte Multiple Listing Service for single family homes in all of Lake Norman. These numbers represent a real time snapshot of the past two week’s activity. (April 7th – 22nd in AM). As always, I have included the past 7 months so that you can put these numbers in perspective. Below is the April chart using my data since 2009.

April Hot Sheet Numbers for the Past 8 Years

Wow, talk about some hot and cold swings! After experiencing a dip in late February and early March we are now on fire. We currently have a whopping 323 single family homes under contract (sellers have accepted an offer but the sale is not complete) in all of Lake Norman compared to last month’s 280, and last year’s end of April’s 313. We have picked up the pace significantly from last month’s and are even out pacing last year at this time in terms of new contracts.

Highlights:

New listings: At 116, we are just slightly below last month’s but much higher than last fall and earlier this year. Compared to prior Aprils’ we are on the lower side of new listings. We are still experiencing a shortage of single family homes for sale in our Lake Norman area. As of today we have only 888 active listings in all of Lake Norman which is up from last month but still well below last April’s 932!

Our number of brand NEW “Under Contract but Continue to Show” homes, formally called Conditional and Contingent sales in our MLS, at 102, is by far the highest since last September and the best April since 2009. Wow! This bodes very well for our May/June closed sales.

Our number of Under Contract No Show/Pending sales, however, at only 28, was just average for hot sheet time periods. Pending or “Under Contract No More Showings” are contracts that have passed all of their conditions/contingencies/Due Diligence Deadlines and are just waiting to close. These home sales contracts will most likely close by the end of this month or in May. It could be that agents are writing in longer Due Diligence Periods and are being more conservative about when to stop showings. This may not be a reflection of overall market trends.

66 Hot Sheet Closed Sales is by far the highest April since I started these reports in 2009. At the same time, it is the third highest in the past 6 months. Last April’s total sales were actually lower than last March’s closed sales for the entire month. While we took a beating compared to last March’s closed sales the numbers in this report indicate we will at least match if not exceed last year’s numbers going forward. (Keep in mind that we have had a surge of new construction this year so these MLS numbers are lower than our actual total sales because so many new homes are sold directly to buyers rather than through the MLS).

Today I am seeing quite a variety of trends depending on location, types of properties and price ranges. I have experienced multiple offers in Huntersville in the high $200,000’s, a full price offer within the first 2 weeks of a waterview listing in the mid $300,000’s in Mooresville yet at the same time multiple price reductions on waterfronts and higher-end properties. With such low inventory I am counseling my buyers to watch the market daily for new listings andprice reductions. The average days on market has dropped significantly, especially for “good” new listings. But properties that aren’t perfect are still sitting. If buyers are willing to do remodeling, then now is a great opportunity to buy an older waterfront home that needs work, has been on the market for a long time but is in a great location or has great water. The waterfront teardowns/fixers are disappearing so prices are going up! If you drive around the waterfront streets, especially around Brawley School Rd, you will find an amazing amount of new construction. I can count 10 waterfronts just in the few blocks surrounding my own home. And, interest rates remain under 4% although they have been creeping up slowly. Don’t forget that we have very few distressed sales, (Less than 2% of our inventory are distressed properties: foreclosures and short sales), so a bargain may actually be a really well priced home that is in a good location with a good floor plan. My Mantra for 2016 remains: Think location and resale and look for good waterfront opportunities before they are gone!